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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News Daily Digest (Unofficial)</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/study-explores-the-role-of-nurturance-and-eroticism-in-different-relationship-styles/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Study explores the role of nurturance and eroticism in different relationship styles</a>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2435619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Journal of Sex Research</a></em> explored how two key aspects of romantic relationships, nurturance (feelings of warmth, closeness, and caring) and eroticism (sexual passion and desire), influence relationship satisfaction. The researchers found that while both nurturance and eroticism are generally linked to greater satisfaction, their relative importance differs depending on whether individuals identify as monogamous or consensually non-monogamous. For people who identify with consensual non-monogamy, having high levels of eroticism isn’t essential for a satisfying relationship if they have a strong sense of nurturance.</p>
<p>Romantic relationships are often characterized by a combination of caring, emotional connection (nurturance) and sexual passion (eroticism). Existing relationship theories generally suggest that both are important for a fulfilling romantic relationship. However, most of this research has focused on monogamous relationships, where individuals have only one romantic partner. People in consensually non-monogamous relationships, such as polyamorous relationships, have multiple romantic partners. Because these individuals may experience nurturance and eroticism with different partners, the researchers wanted to understand whether both are always necessary for a satisfying primary relationship.</p>
<p>“I’m interested in how people make consensually non-monogamous relationships work—meaning the dynamics that enable individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships to harmoniously, happily maintain their multiple connections; this is the focus of my dissertation,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-larva/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michelle A. Larva</a>, a doctoral researcher at the INVEST Research Flagship Centre at the University of Turku.</p>
<p>“This specific study, however, was inspired by the work of Esther Perel and the concept of the intimacy-desire paradox, which prompted us to investigate whether the interplay of eroticism and nurturance may contribute to how people experience their consensually non-monogamous relationships, perhaps differently than in monogamous relationships.”</p>
<p>For their study, the researchers analyzed data from a large, international project called <a href="https://osf.io/cb9va" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Multiple Relationships Project</a>. The data came from online surveys completed by individuals from several countries, including the United States, Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Poland, and Finland. Participants were recruited through various methods, including social media groups focused on consensual non-monogamy and personal networks. To be included in the study, participants had to be at least 18 years old and in a romantic or sexual relationship with at least one person for a minimum of one month.</p>
<p>The final sample included 624 participants. Of these, 335 were in a relationship with only one partner, while 289 had multiple partners. Participants were also categorized based on their relationship identity: 217 identified as monogamous, and 399 identified as consensually non-monogamous (which included polyamorous, open relationships, and swinging). It’s important to note that not everyone who identified as consensually non-monogamous had multiple partners at the time of the survey; some had only one.</p>
<p>The researchers measured several key aspects of the participants’ relationships. Eroticism was assessed using a scale that asked participants to rate how well statements like “My relationship with my partner is characterized by desire and lust” described their relationship. Nurturance was measured using statements like “My relationship with my partner is characterized by warmth and comfort.” Relationship satisfaction was evaluated using a scale that included questions like “How satisfied are you with your relationship?”</p>
<p>Participants also reported the length of their relationship in years and the number of current romantic or sexual partners they had. Individuals with multiple partners completed the measures for up to two partners, with the first partner they listed generally considered their “primary” partner.</p>
<p>When looking at the combined effects of nurturance and eroticism on relationship satisfaction, the researchers found that both were positively associated with satisfaction, meaning that higher levels of each tended to go along with higher relationship satisfaction. However, nurturance was a stronger predictor of satisfaction than eroticism.</p>
<p>The most interesting findings emerged when comparing monogamous and consensually non-monogamous individuals. For monogamous individuals, both nurturance and eroticism were consistently linked to satisfaction, regardless of the level of the other. In other words, even if eroticism was low, nurturance was still strongly associated with satisfaction, and vice versa.</p>
<p>For those who identified as consensually non-monogamous, the picture was different. The relationship between nurturance and satisfaction was stronger when eroticism was low. Similarly, the link between eroticism and satisfaction was stronger when nurturance was low.</p>
<p>When nurturance was high among consensually non-monogamous individuals, there was no association between eroticism and satisfaction. This suggests that, for people who identify with this relationship style, having a high level of sexual passion with their primary partner isn’t essential for a satisfying relationship, as long as they have a strong sense of warmth, closeness, and caring.</p>
<p>“The most satisfying intimate relationships are often those that are both nurturing and erotic; nurturance in particular is quite a strong predictor of relationship satisfaction,” Larva told PsyPost. “However, individuals who identify themselves as consensually non-monogamous can feel satisfied within their primary relationships regardless of how much eroticism they feel towards that partner, and regardless of whether they have additional partners or not. This suggests that the lens through which we see our relationships and what we expect out of them may affect how satisfied we feel within them.”</p>
<p>Individuals who were in relationships with only one partner reported higher levels of eroticism compared to those who were in relationships with more than one partner when assessing the primary relationship. Despite this difference in eroticism, the levels of nurturance and overall relationship satisfaction were similar between the two groups.</p>
<p>“The most surprising finding, I think, is that we did not see a similar interaction (between nurturance and eroticism, and how these were associated with relationship satisfaction) when looking at people with one versus multiple partners,” Larva said. “This suggests that the presence or lack of additional partners (i.e. additional sources of nurturance and eroticism) is unlikely to be a key reason behind our findings. The number of partners one has does not seem to be linked to how one feels satisfied with their primary partner.”</p>
<p>Finally, the study examined the role of relationship length. As expected, longer relationship duration was linked to lower eroticism and higher nurturance, regardless of the number of partners or relationship identity. This suggests that the general trend of decreasing sexual passion and increasing emotional closeness over time applies to both monogamous and consensually non-monogamous relationships.</p>
<p>No study is without its limitations, and the researchers acknowledged several important areas for future work. “As is often the case when looking at relationship minority populations, our research is cross-sectional single-wave data collected via convenience sampling, so our findings are not generalizable to a wider population nor do they capture cause-and-effect,” Larva noted. “In particular, most individuals who completed our online survey were generally satisfied in their monogamous or consensually non-monogamous relationships, potentially biasing our results toward more positive relationship dynamics.”</p>
<p>Future research could recruit a more representative sample and explore these dynamics in more detail using longitudinal studies that track relationships over time. This would help to better understand the so-called “intimacy-desire paradox,” where the closeness and security that build up over time in a committed relationship can sometimes dampen sexual desire.</p>
<p>“My aim is to bring to light via the scientific method strategies and factors which individuals can use to sustain long and satisfying relationships across all their diverse forms,” Larva said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2024.2435619" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nurturance, Eroticism, and Relationship Satisfaction Among People in Monogamous and Consensually Non-Monogamous Relationships</a>,” was authored by Michelle A. Larva, Justin K. Mogilski, and Shari M. Blumenstock.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/more-biased-more-trustworthy-new-research-uncovers-a-troubling-trend-among-democrats-and-republicans/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">More biased = more trustworthy? New research uncovers a troubling trend among Democrats and Republicans</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 6th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study reveals how the words we use to describe political events can impact how trustworthy we perceive the speaker to be, and even shape our own opinions about the event itself. The research, published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.106012" target="_blank">Cognition</a></em>, shows that people tend to trust speakers who use language that aligns with their own political views. However, this same partisan language can damage trust and increase disagreement when it’s heard by those with opposing political beliefs.</p>
<p>Political polarization is a growing problem, not just in the United States, but globally. Researchers wanted to understand how the language used to describe political events might contribute to this increasing divide. We’re seeing more and more partisan language used by politicians, news organizations, and even everyday people on social media. </p>
<p>For instance, when describing the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, many Republicans use the word “protest,” while many Democrats prefer terms like “insurrection” or “riot.” The new study aimed to isolate the impact of these specific word choices, examining how they affect both our perceptions of the speaker and our own understanding of what happened. The researchers hypothesized that individuals may be using this type of language more often to appear in a favorable light to people who already agree with them.</p>
<p>“Data shows that people increasingly harbour negative feelings towards their political opponents. A primary goal of this research is to assess how aspects of the current political climate—such as the prevalence of politically-biased language—contribute to deepening political divides,” said study author <a href="https://www.alexandercwalker.com/" target="_blank">Alexander Walker</a>, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University.</p>
<p>The research involved two experiments with a total of 1,121 participants from the United States, all of whom identified as either Democrats or Republicans. These participants were recruited online through services like Amazon Mechanical Turk and Prolific.</p>
<p>In the first experiment, participants were presented with descriptions of various politically charged events. Each event had three different descriptions: one using language favored by liberals (e.g., “expand voting rights”), one using language favored by conservatives (e.g., “reduce election security”), and one using neutral language (e.g., “expand mail-in voting”). These descriptions were presented as public statements made by fictional people. Alongside each statement, participants were also given a detailed, factual account of the event, which they were told to consider completely accurate. This was done to ensure everyone had a common understanding of the underlying facts, regardless of the partisan language used.</p>
<p>Participants were then asked to rate the speaker on several measures. They judged how trustworthy and moral the speaker seemed, how open-minded they appeared, and how much criticism they deserved. Participants also indicated how interested they would be in having a political discussion with the speaker, and what political party they believed the speaker belonged to.</p>
<p>The second experiment focused on how partisan language influences people’s own opinions about the events. Participants were presented with the same events, again described using either liberal-leaning, conservative-leaning, or neutral language. However, in this experiment, some participants received additional, detailed information about the event, while others received only the brief, partisan or neutral description. The key measure in this experiment was how much participants agreed or disagreed with the actions described in the event.</p>
<p>The results of the first experiment showed that people respond very differently to partisan language depending on their own political views. When speakers used language that matched the participant’s political leaning (in-group language), they were seen as more trustworthy, moral, and open-minded. Participants were also more willing to engage in a political discussion with these speakers.</p>
<p>However, the opposite was true when speakers used language associated with the opposing political party (out-group language). These speakers were viewed as less trustworthy, less moral, more closed-minded, and more deserving of criticism. Participants were also much less interested in talking politics with them. The more strongly a participant perceived a speaker as belonging to their own political party, the more positively they rated them.</p>
<p>“People view speakers describing political events in a way that aligns with their ideological leanings as highly trustworthy,” Walker told PsyPost. “Thus, as audiences become more politically polarized, people may increasingly view politically-biased news as more trustworthy than that which aims to be more neutral.”</p>
<p>“While describing events using politically-biased language was the best way to garner trust from political in-group members, describing these events using more neutral language was the best way to garner trust across political lines (i.e., from both Democrats and Republicans alike). Thus, despite the political leanings of our participants, they still both agreed that the presented politically neutral statements accurately described a set of contentious political events.”</p>
<p>The second experiment revealed that partisan language not only affects our view of the speaker, but also polarizes our own attitudes about the event itself. When events were described using language aligned with a participant’s political views, their opinions about the event became more extreme in that direction. </p>
<p>This effect was particularly strong when participants didn’t have much additional information about the event. When more details were provided, the polarizing effect of the partisan language was reduced, though it didn’t disappear completely. This finding implies that when people know more about the details of an event, they are less likely to let a single word or phrase dictate their overall opinion. Even so, the tendency to interpret events in a way that reinforces preexisting political beliefs remained evident.</p>
<p>“We find evidence suggesting that people are incentivized to describe political events in a manner that aligns with the political biases of their audience,” Walker said. “We also show that exposure to politically-biased descriptions of political events a) promotes negative evaluations of political out-group members and b) shapes how people view political events.”</p>
<p>But as with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The scenarios used in both experiments, while carefully designed, represented only a subset of the many possible events and linguistic choices that occur in everyday political discourse. The researchers note that large-scale studies using real-world data from social media, political speeches, or news reports could help confirm and expand on these findings.</p>
<p>“One limitation of the current work is that, unlike in real-world contexts, participants in our study did not have information about the people describing political events,” Walker noted. “This allowed us to isolate the impact of politically-biased language on peoples’ political attitudes and judgments of trustworthiness (e.g., trust in speakers describing a political event). However, it is an open question whether knowledge of a person’s or organization’s political leanings limits the persuasive influence of partisan rhetoric.”</p>
<p>The study highlights an important societal challenge: even when information is objectively accurate, the way it is framed can have powerful effects on public opinion and interpersonal trust. While much attention is often focused on the dangers of misinformation, this research demonstrates that even truthful language can contribute to polarization if it is presented in a way that appeals to partisan identities. </p>
<p>“Much attention has been paid to the negative impact of misinformation,” Walker said. “However, we show that information need not be objectively false to facilitate distrust of political opponents or polarize opinion across party lines.”</p>
<p>“A long-term goal of this work is to better understand growing partisan divides by understanding the interplay between peoples’ political environment and political attitudes. For example, does politically-biased (yet not objectively false) news make people more extreme in their ideological attitudes? Do these more extreme attitudes result in people viewing politically-biased information as most trustworthy? If so, how can this divisive cycle be interrupted?”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.106012" target="_blank">Partisan language in a polarized world: In-group language provides reputational benefits to speakers while polarizing audiences</a>,” was authored by Alexander C. Walker, Jonathan A. Fugelsang, and Derek J. Koehler.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/time-expansion-experiences-why-time-slows-down-in-altered-states-of-consciousness/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Time expansion experiences: why time slows down in altered states of consciousness</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2025, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>We all know that time seems to pass at different speeds in different situations. For example, time appears to go slowly when we travel to unfamiliar places. A week in a foreign country seems much longer than week at home.</p>
<p>Time also seems to pass slowly when we are bored, or in pain. It seems to speed up when we’re in a state of absorption, such as when we play music or chess, or paint or dance. More generally, most people report time seems to speed up as they get older.</p>
<p>However, these variations in time perception are quite mild. Our experience of time can change in a much more radical way. In <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/time-expansion-experiences/">my new book</a>, I describe what I call “time expansion experiences” – in which seconds can stretch out into minutes.</p>
<p>The reasons why time can speed up and slow down are a bit of a mystery. Some researchers, including me, think that mild variations in time perception are linked to <a href="https://research-hive.com/2024/08/16/life-in-slow-motion-can-time-perception-and-the-speed-of-information-processing-be-manipulated/#:~:text=Although%20the%20link%20between%20the,how%20it%20can%20be%20influenced.">information processing</a>. As a general rule, the more information – such as perceptions, sensations, thoughts – that our minds process, the slower time seems to pass. Time passes slowly to children because they live in a world of newness.</p>
<p>New environments stretch time because of their unfamiliarity. Absorption contracts time because our attention becomes narrow, and our minds become quiet, with few thoughts passing through. In contrast, boredom stretches time because our unfocused minds fill with a massive amount of thought-chatter.</p>
<h2>Time expansion experiences</h2>
<p>Time expansion experiences (or Tees) can occur in an accident or emergency situation, such as a car crash, a fall or an attack. In time expansion experiences, time appears to expand by many orders of magnitude. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022167820917484">In my research,</a> I have found that around 85% of people have had at least one Tee.</p>
<p>Around a half of Tees occur in accident and emergency situations. In such situations, people are often surprised by the amount of time they have to think and act. In fact, many people are convinced that time expansion saved them from their serious injury, or even saved their lives – because it allowed them to take preventative action that would normally be impossible.</p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/time-expansion-experiences/">woman who reported a Tee</a> in which she avoided a metal barrier falling on to her car told me how a “slowing down of the moment” allowed her to “decide how to escape the falling metal on us”.</p>
<p>Tees are also common in sport. For example, a participant described a Tee that occurred while playing ice hockey, when “the play which seemed to last for about ten minutes all occurred in the space of about eight seconds”. Tees also occur in moments of stillness and presence, during meditation or in natural surroundings.</p>
<p>However, some of the most extreme Tees are linked to psychedelic substances, such as LSD or <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/SHAAT">ayahuasca</a>. In my collection of Tees, around 10% are linked to psychedelics. A man told me that, during an LSD experience, he looked at the stopwatch on his phone and “the hundredths of a second were moving as slow as seconds normally move. It was really intense time dilation,” he said.</p>
<p>But why? <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00196/full">One theory</a> is that these experiences are linked to a release of noradrenaline (both a hormone and an neurotransmitter) in emergency situations, related to the “fight or flight” mechanism. However, this doesn’t fit with the calm wellbeing people usually report in Tees.</p>
<p>Even though their lives might be in danger, people usually feel strangely calm and relaxed. For example, a woman who had a Tee when she fell off a horse <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/time-expansion-experiences/">told me</a>: “The whole experience seemed to last for minutes. I was ultra-calm, unconcerned that the horse still hadn’t recovered its balance and quite possibly could fall on top of me.” The noradrenaline theory also doesn’t fit with the fact that many Tees occur in peaceful situations, such as deep meditation or oneness with nature.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/time-expansion-experiences/">Another theory</a> I have considered is that Tees are an evolutionary adaptation. Maybe our ancestors developed the ability to slow down time in emergency situations – such as encounters with deadly wild animals or natural disasters – to improve their chances of survival. However, the above argument applies here too: this doesn’t fit with the non-emergency situations when Tees occur.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001295">A third theory</a> is that Tees aren’t real experiences, but illusions of recollection. In emergency situations, so this theory goes, our awareness becomes acute, so that we take in more perceptions than normal. These perceptions become encoded in our memories, so that when we recall the emergency situation, the extra memories create the impression that time passed slowly.</p>
<p>However, in many Tees, people are certain that they had extra time to think and act. Time expansion allowed complex series of thoughts and actions that would have been impossible if time had been passing at a normal speed. In a recent (not yet published) poll of 280 Tees, I found that less than 3% of the participants believed that the experience was an illusion. Some 87% believed it was a real experience that happened in the present, while 10% were undecided.</p>
<h2>Altered states of consciousness</h2>
<p>In my view, the key to understanding Tees surrounds altered states of consciousness. The sudden shock of an accident may disrupt our normal psychological processes, causing an abrupt shift in consciousness. In sport, intense altered states occur due to what I call “super-absorption”.</p>
<p>Absorption normally makes time pass faster – as in flow, when we are absorbed in a task. But when absorption becomes especially intense, over a long period of sustained concentration, the opposite occurs, and time slows down radically.</p>
<p>Altered states of consciousness can also affect our sense of identity, and our normal sense of separation between us and the world. As the psychologist <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262546089/altered-states-of-consciousness/">Marc Wittmann</a> has pointed out, our sense of time is closely bound up with our sense of self.</p>
<p>We usually have a sense of living inside our mental space, with the world “out there” on the other side. One of the main features of intense altered states is that sense of separation fades. We no longer feel enclosed inside our minds, but feel connected to our surroundings.</p>
<p>This means the boundary between us and the world softens. And in the process, our sense of time expands. We slip outside our normal consciousness, and into a different time-world.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/244949/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
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<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/time-expansion-experiences-why-time-slows-down-in-altered-states-of-consciousness-244949">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/low-user-engagement-limits-effectiveness-of-digital-mental-health-interventions/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Low user engagement limits effectiveness of digital mental health interventions</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2025, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A new review published in <em><a href="https://mental.jmir.org/2024/1/e56650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JMIR Mental Health</a></em> offers a fresh look at digital mental health treatments for individuals waiting to see a therapist in person. The new paper suggests that while these digital treatments can help reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, they do not appear to be any more effective than simply waiting or using a self-help book. The review also highlights challenges with user engagement, including high dropout rates, which may limit the overall benefits of these digital programs.</p>
<p>The review was conducted in response to a growing problem in mental health care: long wait times for therapy. Across many countries, patients often face months-long delays before they can begin treatment with a psychotherapist. This waiting period can be a critical time for individuals struggling with depression and anxiety, as symptoms may worsen without intervention. Digital mental health interventions—ranging from self-help websites to mobile therapy apps—have been proposed as a way to provide support to those waiting for face-to-face treatment. However, their effectiveness for this specific purpose had not been systematically reviewed until now.</p>
<p>“The increasing prevalence of depression and anxiety, coupled with long waiting lists for psychotherapy, motivated our research. Digital mental health interventions offer a scalable and accessible way to provide support during these waiting periods,”</p>
<p>“As the supervising researcher, I saw an opportunity to explore how digital mental health interventions could complement traditional face-to-face therapy by offering interventions before the therapy begins, while individuals are on waiting lists for psychotherapy. Moreover, the research team and I identified that no earlier literature reviews had specifically investigated the impact of digital mental health interventions for individuals on psychotherapy waiting lists. By focusing on this area, we aimed to fill a critical gap and make a meaningful contribution to the field.”</p>
<p>To assess whether digital mental health interventions offer meaningful benefits to patients on waiting lists, the researchers conducted a systematic review of existing studies. They searched four major scientific databases—PubMed, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and Web of Science—to identify relevant studies published before June 2024. The studies included in the review had to involve digital interventions for individuals waiting for psychotherapy, with clear psychological outcome measures related to depression and anxiety. After screening thousands of articles, the researchers selected eight studies that met their criteria.</p>
<p>“It was surprising that there was such a limited pool of high-quality studies in such an important area or research. Out of over 9,000 screened records, we found only a small number of randomized controlled trials meeting our criteria.”</p>
<p>Of these eight studies, five were randomized controlled trials, which are considered the gold standard for evaluating treatment effectiveness. The remaining three were feasibility or nonrandomized studies. The interventions studied varied in format, including internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy programs, problem-solving therapy, and guided self-help interventions. Some were fully automated self-help programs, while others involved limited guidance from a therapist or coach. The researchers examined how these interventions affected depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as factors like user engagement and perceived credibility.</p>
<p>The review found that, overall, digital interventions led to moderate reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms. However, most of the randomized controlled trials found no significant differences between the intervention groups and the control groups. In many cases, control groups either received a self-help book or simply remained on the waiting list without any intervention, yet they showed similar symptom improvements to those using digital programs.</p>
<p>Only one of the randomized controlled trials reported a significant difference in symptom reduction between the intervention group and the control group. The remaining trials found small or negligible differences, suggesting that digital interventions were not consistently more effective than waiting or using a self-help book.</p>
<p>One of the biggest challenges identified in the review was user engagement. Many participants dropped out of digital interventions before completing the full program. Previous research has shown that guided interventions—where users receive some level of human support—tend to have higher engagement levels than fully self-guided programs. In this review, guided interventions generally had lower dropout rates than unguided ones. Additionally, factors such as age, education level, and perceived credibility of the intervention appeared to influence engagement. Some participants reported that they did not expect the digital interventions to be as effective as face-to-face therapy, which may have contributed to low adherence.</p>
<p>“The main takeaway is that while digital mental health interventions show some potential during waiting lists, their benefits are modest at best. As lead author Sijia Huang, a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Rowan University, noted, ‘Unfortunately, our findings show that most digital mental health tools did not outperform control groups where patients either simply waited without intervention or used self-help books.’ So, although digital mental health interventions have potential as a pre-treatment for individuals on psychotherapy waiting lists, improving engagement and adherence is crucial to enhancing their effectiveness.”</p>
<p>The review also noted that the studies included were highly variable in terms of design, intervention type, and outcome measures. This variability made it difficult to draw strong conclusions about which features of digital interventions are most effective for patients on waiting lists. While some studies showed promising results, the overall evidence remains inconclusive. The researchers emphasized the need for more high-quality randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes to better understand how digital interventions can be optimized for this population.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, digital mental health interventions still hold promise as an accessible and scalable option for mental health support. The researchers suggested that future studies should focus on making these interventions more engaging and personalized. Features such as tailored feedback, interactive components, and therapist support may help improve adherence and effectiveness. They also highlighted the need to investigate digital interventions in more diverse populations, including individuals in low-income and non-English-speaking communities, where access to mental health care is often even more limited.</p>
<p>“This research was a collaborative effort between researchers in Psychology and Public Health at NYU Shanghai, the University of Reading, and Rowan University. Our goals with this article were to raise awareness about the importance of evaluating interventions during waiting lists for psychotherapy and to highlight the need for more empirical research in this area. Given the likelihood of increasing waiting list times in the future, we hope to engage other researchers in developing and investigating more engaging, personalized, and effective interventions that are accessible to diverse populations. This will hopefully help address the global mental health crisis by providing effective support to those in need.”</p>
<p>“While digital mental health interventions are generally useful, our review shows that their effectiveness during psychotherapy waiting lists is limited. A key challenge is the variation in study designs, which makes it difficult to compare results and identify the most effective intervention features. As these methods evolve, a stronger focus on user experience, long-term engagement, and clinical effectiveness will most likely be essential. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of digital mental health interventions for individuals on psychotherapy waiting lists.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/56650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Mental Health Interventions for Alleviating Depression and Anxiety During Psychotherapy Waiting Lists: Systematic Review</a>,” was authored by Sijia Huang, Yiyue Wang, Gen Li, Brian J. Hall, and Thomas J. Nyman</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-with-autistic-traits-show-reduced-attentional-bias-towards-animals/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">People with autistic traits show reduced attentional bias towards animals</a>
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<p><p>A new study published in the journal <em>Cognition</em> has found that people with lower levels of autistic traits show a persistent tendency to pay more attention to images of animals compared to images of inanimate objects. But individuals with higher levels of autistic traits do not exhibit this same attentional bias. These findings suggest a potential link between our inherent ability to quickly spot living creatures and our broader social cognitive abilities.</p>
<p>The ability to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects is a fundamental cognitive skill, crucial for survival and social interaction. We are naturally inclined to notice living beings, as they can represent potential threats, opportunities for interaction, or sources of information. Researchers have theorized that this “animate monitoring” is an evolved mechanism, and prior studies have shown that people are generally faster and more accurate at detecting changes in images of humans and animals compared to objects.</p>
<p>However, a significant gap remained in understanding whether this inherent attentional preference for animals is related to broader social cognition. Because social interaction usually occurs between living beings, researchers have reasoned that attending to animate beings is the first step toward social interaction. To explore this potential connection, the researchers in this study investigated whether the tendency to prioritize attention to animals varies depending on an individual’s autistic traits, which are considered an indicator of social cognitive abilities in the general population.</p>
<p>To explore these ideas, the researchers designed an experiment that used a dot-probe task where participants had to quickly respond to a visual cue after seeing pairs of images. In the main experiment, each trial started with a small cross in the center of a computer screen. After a brief period, two pictures appeared simultaneously—one showing an animal and the other showing an everyday object. The pictures were presented either in their normal upright orientation or upside down. After the images were displayed for a short period (ranging from 100 milliseconds to 1000 milliseconds), a small visual target, known as a probe, would briefly appear on one side of the screen. Participants were instructed to press a key to indicate whether the probe appeared on the left or right side as quickly and accurately as possible.</p>
<p>The speed of the participants’ responses served as a measure of where their attention had been directed. If a person had been paying more attention to the animal image, they would be quicker to notice the probe when it appeared on that side of the screen. To ensure that any observed effects were not due to simple visual differences between the images, the researchers used pictures that had been carefully processed so that the animal and object images were similar in terms of brightness and contrast. The pictures were converted to grayscale and matched in terms of these basic visual properties.</p>
<p>In addition to the main experiment, the researchers also conducted a follow-up experiment in which they altered the images in a specific way. They scrambled the phase of the pictures, a process that keeps the low-level visual characteristics intact but removes the meaningful content that allows a viewer to recognize an animal. This second experiment helped determine whether the attention effects were truly related to the living nature of the images, rather than to some basic visual feature that might be present in the animal pictures.</p>
<p>A total of 120 participants, all young adults with normal or corrected vision, took part in the study. The participants were split into two groups based on their scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient, a questionnaire that measures traits associated with autism. In the first experiment, 60 participants completed the task with both upright and inverted images. In the follow-up experiment with scrambled images, another 60 participants took part, again divided by their autism-related trait scores.</p>
<p>When analyzing the reaction times of the participants, the researchers found that overall, responses were faster when the probe appeared on the side where the animal image had been shown. This suggests that the animal pictures drew attention more effectively than the object pictures.</p>
<p>More interestingly, when the data were examined in relation to the Autism Spectrum Quotient scores, the effect was more pronounced among those with lower scores. In other words, participants with fewer autism-like traits showed a stronger tendency to direct their attention to animal images. This difference was most evident during the very early stages of processing, within the first few hundred milliseconds after the images appeared. For those with higher scores, the bias toward animal images was either reduced or absent in these early stages.</p>
<p>The study also considered the impact of image orientation. Although the animal images still produced an attentional bias even when presented upside down, the relationship with autism-like traits was primarily seen when the images were upright. This finding suggests that the way our brains process the natural form of a living creature plays an important role in how quickly we direct our attention to it, and that this process is linked with individual differences in social processing.</p>
<p>In the follow-up experiment, the scrambled versions of the images did not lead to a similar attentional bias. Both groups—those with lower and higher scores on the Autism Spectrum Quotient—showed no preference for either of the scrambled images. This result confirms that the attention bias observed in the main experiment was due to the perception of life-like qualities in the animal images, rather than being caused by simple visual features like brightness or contrast.</p>
<p>It is important to note that study only examined a non-clinical population, meaning none of the participants had a formal diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Future research should investigate whether similar patterns are observed in individuals formally diagnosed with autism.</p>
<p>The findings open the door to several avenues for future research. For example, scientists might explore whether the observed attentional bias for living things develops over time and how early life experiences shape this bias. Further research could also compare the attentional patterns of individuals diagnosed with autism to those in the general population with varying levels of autism-like traits, to better understand the underlying neural and cognitive processes.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105900" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Social perception of animacy: Preferential attentional orienting to animals links with autistic traits</a>,” was authored by Geqing Yang, Ying Wang, and Yi Jiang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-study-shows-local-news-is-vulnerable-to-partisan-attacks/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New study shows local news is vulnerable to partisan attacks</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study finds that when Republican politicians attack local news outlets, public trust in those outlets drops significantly. The study, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096524000775" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PS: Political Science & Politics</a></em>, shows that these attacks are especially effective among Republican voters, but also negatively impact Democrats’ and Independents’ views of their local newspapers.</p>
<p>Prior research has established that attacks on the news media by politicians and pundits are a substantial part of the trend of declining trust in media, and that the public evaluates the media more negatively and perceives greater news coverage bias after encountering criticism of news organizations from a communicator they trust. Past studies also show that media criticism is most frequently supplied by Republican politicians and conservative pundits.</p>
<p>However, these studies tend to focus on national news outlets or the concept of “the media” in general, rather than local news. This study aimed to examine whether local news is more resilient to attacks from politicians, or if its current high levels of trust are simply due to a lack of direct criticism. The researchers behind the new study, <a href="https://allisonarcher.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Allison M. N. Archer</a> and Erik Peterson, focused on criticism from Republican politicians because prior research, as well as their own analysis, has shown that they are more likely than Democratic politicians to attack the media.</p>
<p>“Though trust in national news has declined over the years, trust in local news remains relatively high,” explained Archer, an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston.</p>
<p>“At the same time, politicians increasingly attack news outlets, and Erik and I had both seen this happen at the local level. We wanted to understand how often local news outlets were being attacked and more importantly, what that means for trust in local news. Considering people’s strong community ties to local media outlets, it was possible that those existing relationships prevented politicians’ attacks from resonating with folks.”</p>
<p>To examine the effects of politicians’ attacks on local news, the researchers conducted a survey experiment with 3,653 participants. These participants were recruited from two different online platforms: Prolific and CloudResearch Prime Panel. The Prolific sample was selected to match the general U.S. population in terms of age, sex, and race/ethnicity, while the CloudResearch sample was selected to have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.</p>
<p>All participants in the study read a (made-up) press release from a Republican politician in their state. The participants were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. Those in the control group read a press release where the politician discussed the importance of registering to vote. Those in the treatment group read a press release where the politician attacked a local newspaper, claiming it published biased coverage, ignored important issues, and endorsed candidates who were bad for the community.</p>
<p>The specific politician and newspaper mentioned in the press release varied depending on the participant’s state of residence, and were chosen to make the scenario as realistic as possible. For example, participants from Wisconsin in the treatment group saw an attack on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Senator Ron Johnson, an outlet he had previously attacked.</p>
<p>The researchers then tested how these fabricated press releases affected participants’ views of both the local newspaper and the politician mentioned. They also examined whether the effects differed depending on the participant’s political party and how familiar they were with the local newspaper.</p>
<p>The researchers found that attacks from Republican politicians had a significant negative effect on the reputation of the local newspaper. Participants who read the press release with the attack rated the newspaper’s reputation much lower than those in the control group. The attack also reduced participants’ stated intention to use the newspaper in the future, although this effect was smaller.</p>
<p>The effects of the attack were especially strong among Republican participants. Republicans who saw the attack rated the local newspaper much lower than Democrats and Independents who saw the same attack. In fact, after seeing the attack, Republicans’ views of the local newspaper were similar to their views of national news outlets like CNN, which are generally viewed much less favorably and with greater partisan division.</p>
<p>In the control group, local newspapers were rated on average at 56 points on a 100-point scale, a sign of fairly positive sentiment. However, after exposure to the attack, Republican respondents’ ratings of the local newspaper dropped by 16 points.</p>
<p>The researchers also examined whether the attack affected participants’ views of the politician making the attack. They found that the attack slightly reduced support for the politician, and this effect was concentrated among Democrats and Independents. However, contrary to expectations, Republicans did not appear to either reward or punish the politician for attacking the local newspaper.</p>
<p>Finally, the researchers looked at whether the effects of the attack were different for people who were more familiar with the local newspaper. They found some evidence that the attack was less effective at reducing trust among those who were more familiar with the newspaper. However, even among those with high familiarity, the attack still significantly reduced trust. Surprisingly, the attack was actually more effective at reducing future intent to use the newspaper among those who were more familiar with it.</p>
<p>“We found that exposure to a Republican politician’s attack on a local news outlet reduces people’s trust in and willingness to read that newspaper,” Archer told PsyPost. “The effect is strongest among Republicans but still emerges for Democrats and Independents. Attacks on local news are not as common as those targeting national news but if critiques of local news escalate, the high levels of trust in local media outlets that we currently see are likely to be undermined.”</p>
<p>The researchers acknowledge that their study cannot directly address the effects of a Democrat criticizing local news, as it only focused on attacks from Republican politicians. However, the authors suggest that based on their findings, it is likely that Democratic criticism would also lower trust in local news, especially among Democratic voters. Future research could explore this possibility, as well as the potential for Democratic attacks to backfire and increase support for local news among Republicans.</p>
<p>The authors also note that their findings suggest that the current high levels of trust in local news may be due to the relative lack of attacks from politicians, rather than any inherent resilience to criticism. They suggest that future research should examine the factors that influence politicians’ decisions to attack or not attack local news, as these decisions have important implications for the future of trust in local news.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096524000775" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Fragility of the Local News Trust Advantage: Evidence from Republican Attacks on Local News</a>,” was published January 7, 2025.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/stimulant-medications-lower-depression-risk-in-children-with-adhd/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Stimulant medications lower depression risk in children with ADHD</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A meta-analysis of studies on children and adolescents with ADHD found that they are at an increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders. However, taking stimulant medication for ADHD was associated with a reduced risk of depression. The paper was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.12.022"><em>Journal of Psychiatric Research</em></a>.</p>
<p>Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects attention, impulsivity, and activity levels. People with ADHD tend to struggle with staying focused, following instructions, or controlling impulses. It is commonly diagnosed in childhood (usually at the start of school) but can continue into adulthood.</p>
<p>ADHD medications are commonly divided into stimulants and non-stimulants. Stimulants, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta) and amphetamine-based drugs (Adderall, Vyvanse), are the most effective and work by increasing levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. Non-stimulants, like atomoxetine (Strattera) and certain blood pressure medications (guanfacine, clonidine), are alternatives for those who do not respond well to stimulants. Medication is often combined with behavioral therapy and lifestyle changes for optimal ADHD management.</p>
<p>Study author Yanyi Zhang and her colleagues sought to assess the effects of ADHD and its medication on the risk of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents. They noted that some previous studies indicate that children with ADHD might be at an increased risk of these disorders and that taking ADHD medication can affect that risk. However, other studies found no link between ADHD and depression.</p>
<p>The authors conducted a meta-analysis. They searched the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases for papers mentioning ADHD, depression, anxiety, and their synonyms and spelling variants. They looked for studies on children and adolescents recently diagnosed with ADHD that compared them to a control group without ADHD and examined depression and anxiety disorders.</p>
<p>Anxiety disorders are a group of mental health conditions characterized by excessive fear, worry, and nervousness that interfere with daily life. These include generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and phobias.</p>
<p>The search resulted in 22,519 studies. However, after removing duplicates and studies that did not meet the authors’ criteria, the number was reduced to 33. Five of these studies were qualitative, while the remaining studies used statistical methods to report their results.</p>
<p>Analysis of these studies showed that children and adolescents with ADHD have a 2.27 times higher risk of exhibiting depressive symptoms than children without ADHD. In adults with ADHD, the risk was 1.46 times higher. Children and adolescents with ADHD also had more than twice the risk of dysthymic disorder (a chronic form of depression lasting two years or more) and of being diagnosed with major depressive disorder.</p>
<p>These children and adolescents had approximately a 1.7 times higher risk of anxiety disorders in general compared to their peers without ADHD. The risk was about twice as high for generalized anxiety disorder, 1.7 times higher for social phobia and specific phobias, 2.6 times higher for separation anxiety disorder, and approximately 1.9 times higher for panic disorder. Their risk of suffering from agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) was five times higher than that of individuals without ADHD, and they were three times more likely to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder.</p>
<p>Finally, the analysis showed that the risk of depression was somewhat reduced (20% lower) in individuals with ADHD taking stimulant medications. The effect of non-stimulant medication was not confirmed, and there was no association between taking medications and the risk of anxiety.</p>
<p><strong>“</strong>In conclusion, children and adolescents with ADHD had higher risks of depressive disorder, major depressive disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, and agoraphobia than those without ADHD. Stimulant medications for ADHD were associated with a reduced risk for depression,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>This study integrates scientific findings regarding the links between ADHD, depression, and anxiety. However, it should be noted that ADHD subtypes could have different associations with anxiety and depression, but most of the analyzed literature did not report associations within these subtypes. Additionally, the studies that examined the effects of medication were conducted on small groups of participants and might have missed some important effects.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.12.022">Effects of ADHD and ADHD medications on depression and anxiety in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis,</a>” was authored by Yanyi Zhang, Wenjing Liao, Yanxiao Rao, Weijia Gao, and Rongwang Yang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/eye-tracking-study-reveals-where-women-and-men-look-when-viewing-a-female-butt/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Eye-tracking study reveals where women and men look when viewing a female butt</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Feb 5th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00266-024-04257-x"><em>Aesthetic Plastic Surgery</em></a> has shed light on the subconscious visual preferences people have regarding the appearance of buttocks. Researchers used eye-tracking technology to analyze where people look when viewing images of female buttocks and found that both men and women tend to focus most on the intergluteal cleft, commonly known as the butt crack. The study also revealed some interesting differences in viewing patterns between men and women.</p>
<p>The researchers were motivated to conduct this study due to the increasing popularity of cosmetic procedures aimed at enhancing the buttock region. While beauty standards vary across cultures and individuals, there is a growing demand for such procedures worldwide. The team wanted to gain a better understanding of the specific features that people find visually appealing in buttocks, and they employed eye-tracking technology to uncover these subconscious preferences.</p>
<p>To conduct their investigation, the research team recruited 67 heterosexual volunteers, whose ages ranged from 20 to 59 years old, with an average age of approximately 27.7 years. The group included 28 men and 39 women who provided informed consent to participate in the study. Each participant’s eye movements were recorded using an advanced eye-tracking device, which operated by capturing reflections from the eyes at a rate of 60 readings per second. The technology used infrared sensors to track the movement of the eyes as the participants viewed a series of photographs.</p>
<p>The researchers presented the participants with standardized images of seven female subjects, photographed from multiple angles including straight on, oblique from both the right and left sides, and laterally from both sides. Each image was shown for a set period of six seconds, with a brief two-second interval featuring a blank white screen between images to allow the eyes to rest.</p>
<p>The researchers divided the buttock region into ten distinct areas of interest: intergluteal cleft, upper medial buttock, lower medial buttock, upper lateral buttock, lower lateral buttock, lumbar area, hip dip, lateral thigh, gluteal fold, and thigh gap.</p>
<p>Two primary measurements were taken: the time until the first fixation occurred on a given region and the total duration of time that participants maintained a steady gaze on that area. These measurements allowed the researchers to capture both the immediacy of the viewer’s attention and the overall interest level in each area.</p>
<p>The results showed that, overall, participants spent the most time looking at the intergluteal cleft, regardless of gender or ethnicity. The average time of fixation on the intergluteal cleft was 0.87 seconds. The area that received the least attention was the thigh gap, with an average fixation time of only 0.06 seconds.</p>
<p>Men looked at the intergluteal cleft for a slightly longer duration (0.96 seconds) than women (0.81 seconds), and this difference was statistically significant. There were also significant differences between men and women in the time spent looking at other areas, such as the upper lateral buttock, lumbar region, hip dip, and gluteal fold. (The upper lateral buttock is the top, outer portion contributing to the buttock’s roundness, while the lumbar region is the lower back area above the buttocks. The hip dip is the natural inward curve below the hip bone, and the gluteal fold is the crease where the buttocks meet the thighs, defining their lower boundary.)</p>
<p>For example, women spent a longer period of time fixating on the upper lateral buttock, lumbar region, and gluteal fold, compared to men, suggesting these areas held their visual attention longer. In contrast, men looked at the hip dip for a longer time than women did. These differences suggest that men and women may process aesthetic features differently when evaluating what makes an attractive buttock.</p>
<p>In terms of time until first fixation, the lower medial buttock was the area that caught participants’ attention most quickly (1.47 seconds on average). The lower medial buttock refers to the bottom, inner portion of the buttock, closest to the midline of the body and just above the gluteal fold. The thigh gap took the longest to attract attention (2.52 seconds on average).</p>
<p>The researchers also found some differences in gaze patterns based on ethnicity. Both Asian and Caucasian participants spent the most time fixating on the intergluteal cleft, but there were variations in the time spent looking at other regions. For instance, Asian participants spent more time looking at the lower medial buttock and hip dip compared to Caucasian participants. There were also differences between the two ethnic groups in terms of how quickly they fixated on certain areas, with Caucasians tending to fixate more quickly on the intergluteal cleft and hip dip.</p>
<p>The study offers new insights into the ways in which our eyes are drawn to specific regions of the female buttocks. But there are some caveats to consider. One of the main concerns is that the relationship between the length of time a participant fixates on a specific area and their aesthetic preference is not entirely clear. It is uncertain whether a longer gaze automatically indicates a higher degree of attractiveness or if it merely reflects curiosity or surprise.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the images used in the study featured models wearing underwear (a black thong), and it is possible that this detail may have influenced where participants directed their attention.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, researchers plan to build on these findings by examining whether the observed gaze patterns are directly related to how individuals rate the attractiveness of different buttock shapes. This future work will aim to untangle whether prolonged fixation truly correlates with positive aesthetic evaluation or if other factors come into play.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00266-024-04257-x">Eye-Tracking Insights into the Perception of Buttocks</a>,” was authored by Rui Zeng, Emily Glaue, Nicholas Moellhoff, Michael Alfertshofer, Sebastian Cotofana, Samuel Knoedler, Leonard Knoedler, Severin Wiggenhauser, Riccardo Giunta, and Konstantin Frank.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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